


Can’t Help Falling In Love With My Best Friend

by Nat_Writes



Category: Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist (TV)
Genre: F/M, Friends to Lovers, Getting Together, M/M, Mutual Pining, Post-Canon, Songfic, Would this be considered a song fic, Zoey being bi is mentioned, Zoey ships it, Zoey/Max is only mentioned, bi Leif, pan Tobin
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-13
Updated: 2020-06-13
Packaged: 2021-03-04 05:08:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,678
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24668149
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nat_Writes/pseuds/Nat_Writes
Summary: Today was a relatively easy day for Zoey Clarke. That is exactly why her good mood is not ruined when someone starts singing to her at work. Zoey only hopes that she won’t have to meddle with someone’s love life.Oh, if only she got what she wanted.
Relationships: Background Zoey Clarke/Max Richman, Tobin Batra/Leif Donnelly
Comments: 6
Kudos: 39





	Can’t Help Falling In Love With My Best Friend

Zoey was having a fairly good morning. For once work wasn’t absolutely tearing her to pieces. Ever since she took over Joan’s spot, and Leif took over her’s, Zoey really hasn’t found any time for a break. She’s constantly in meetings, making phone calls, trying to keep everyone one the fourth floor on task, and looking over Leif’s shoulder every five seconds just to make sure that he isn’t plotting against her. How Joan managed to handle all the stress is beyond her.

Today was going relatively easy, for Zoey Clarke, which is why her good mood isn’t ruined when she hears the opening to a song. It’s been a while since she had to help someone she works with. Zoey only hopes that she won’t have to meddle with someone’s love life.

”Alright who is it now?” Zoey says while getting up from her chair, eyes scanning through the glass of her office (one of the upside of taking over Joan’s spot is that she has her own office now) trying to see who ~~is going to be her next victim~~ she’s going to help now. Her eyes zeroed in on her target as soon as he started singing.

” _Wise men say only fools rush in_.” A male voice sang standing up his chair. “ _But I can’t help falling in love with you_.”

“Tobin?” Zoey exclaimed from her desk. Well, there goes all her childish hope. The dong _just_ started and the L-word is already being thrown around. She gets out of her chair as Tobin slowly walks around his desk, stepping in tune with the music.

“ _Shall I stay? Would it be a sin_ ,” Keeping the same pace, Tobin works his way towards Leif’s desk, his eyes are glued to the back of Leif’s head, “ _if I can’t help falling in love with you_?”

Zoey’s eyes widened as it hit her who Tobin was singing to. In an instant, she is out of her office and into the bullpen. Tobin walks up to Leif and runs his hand along Leif’s shoulders.

” _Like a river flows surely to the sea_ ,” Tobin sang as he leaned on Leif’s desk. “ _Darling so It goes, some things are meant to be_.” Leif’s eyes are trained firmly on the screen in front of him; blissfully unaware of what was happening next to him.

“ _Take my hand, take my whole life too_.” Tobin grabs Leif’s hand and places it on his own chest right above his heart, “ _For I can’t help falling in love with you_.”

Tobin dropped Leif’s hand as he backed away to his desk. “ _For I can’t help falling in love with you_.” Tobin finishes as he slides down onto his chair. As the music comes to a close he gets back to work as if nothing happened.

Zoey is still standing in front of an unoccupied desk with her eyes blown out wide. She looks between Tobin and Leif mouth opening and closing, debating on what to do before her eyes settle on Tobin, who had the slightest hint of a frown on his face. She has to get the two biggest assholes she works with together.

What even is her life?

Zoey decides she’s going to take her lunch break early as she rushes to the elevator. The redhead swiftly steps into the elevator once the doors open, she taps her foot on the floor waiting for the doors to close. The moment Zoey is in the elevator she lets out a frustrated sigh.

”What am I going to do about this?” She whined in the empty elevator.

Tobin is into guys? Not just that but Tobin is in love with with his best friend! Wait. Is Leif still in love with Joan? Oh no, Tobin is head over heels for Leif Donnelly, but there is a good chance Leif is still in love with someone else.

What the heck is she supposed to do with that?!

♥︎

Absolutely nothing, that’s what she’ll do.

Zoey hid in a coffee shop nearby for nearly an hour hour trying to figure out how she’ll casually bring this up to Tobin. _Hey, Tobin I heard that you have fallen in love with your best friend. That’s something we have in common lets talk._ Zoey snorts at her own thoughts as she walks through the lobby at SPRQ Point. She kinda has an idea of where to take the conversation. This will be the second heart-to-heart she has with Tobin. And wouldn’t you know it, Leif is at the center of both conversations. So, yeah, she knows how to handle it. Zoey still thinks there’s a difference between this and Spell-iversary.

She contemplates talking to Tobin right away or waiting until tomorrow. Last time she did rush into talking with him, and that did _not_ go so well.

The elevator doors are coming to a close as someone extends a hand forward, effectively stopping the doors from closing. Leif offers her a small smile as he enters the elevator. He’s balancing a bag of takeout in his arms no doubt coming back from lunch.

”Are you bring back lunch for Tobin?” Zoey asks, noticing his best friend isn’t with him, briefly looking up at him.

”Yeah. He’s too busy working on some code so I went out to get lunch.” Leif responded, looking slightly taken aback by the question. Like he wasn’t expecting her to make small talking between them.

Zoey gives a thumbs up before she hears the soft hum of a piano. Besides her, Leif starts singing in a soft voice. “ _There is something I would like to tell you I figured it out sometime ago_.” He turns to face her and she looks up to him expectedly.

”What do you want to tell me, Leif?” 

“ _I feel great and it makes me really happy and I trust you so I’d love for you to know_.” Zoey simply raises and eyebrow at that but doesn’t comment. “ _Have you heard of LGBTQ+ well I am the B_.”

” _I have a heart that could love two genders_ ,” He swiftly turned back to the elevator doors, “ _Yes, I’m bi and I’m proud to be me_.”

The doors shot open just as the music stopped. Zoey just blinked owlishly up at him. Leif looks over to her and raises his eyebrows in confusion.

”Wha—“

Zoey rushes out of the elevator before Leif gets to finish. When Zoey reaches her office she sits down in her chair and opens up her laptop pretending to work as she watches Leif walk towards Tobin. Zoey pretends to not see the look of confusion Leif throws her way.

Okay, Leif just came out to her. Through song. Without his knowledge. Not for the first time she thinks: _what is my life_?

Just because Leif’s bi doesn’t mean he returns Tobin’s feelings. Then again Leif sung that song to her for a reason, right?

Just in these past few months, there have been times when Zoey looked out of her office to see the way Tobin’s hand stays on Leif’s arm longer than necessary after the, already longer than necessary, hug they share. Zoey never gave much thought to it.

Until now.

She sees the huge grin Tobin is currently flashing Leif as he takes the food. And the way Leif’s gaze lingers on Tobin long after he had turned around. No one else witnessed the moment besides her.

It makes Zoey wonder how many other interactions they’ve had like that.

”Well universe,” Zoey mutters out loud, looking up at the ceiling, “it’s about time they get together, don’t you think?”

♥︎

The next day Zoey decides that she’ll call Tobin into her office after lunch. If there was anything to go by it would be talking to Tobin after he had a nice meal, he’ll probably be more cooperative then. Hopefully.

Zoey looks up from her computer in time to see Tobin and Leif happily chatting and walking back to the bullpen.

”Hey Tobin, come here for a second.” Zoey exclaimed, sending the email she was writing and closing her laptop. Tobin said something to Leif before walking into her office.

”What’s the word, Zo-Zo?” Tobin retorted once he stepped into her office.

”Take a seat,” she gestured towards the chair in front of her desk. Once Tobin got situated she started speaking, “I, uh, noticed that you and Leif are acting different around each other. I’m just wondering if everything is good between you too? Are you two on the same wavelength?” Zoey says mimicking ocean waves with her hands.

”We’re all good, Boss-Lady. Nothing out of the ordinary for these two bros.” Tobin replies smoothly, lounging back into the chair.

”Really? No one has fallen for something or—I don’t know—someone.” Nice. Way to be smooth Zoey.

Tobin’s eyes narrow, his posture stiffens and a look of panic flickers in his eyes, “Why do you care so much?”

”As your boss I want to make sure that no personal issues get in the way of work, and as your friend I care about you and your feelings,” Zoey hesitates before adding, “I noticed you’re spacing out a lot.”

Tobin looks at her skeptically there’s an emotion that flickers in his eyes that Zoey can’t quite decipher. Zoey sighs before trying another approach.

”I’m just saying I see you’re doing a lot of the things I did when I realized I had feelings for Max.”

Now that gets a reaction out of him. Tobin’s eyes go wide, and he trips over his words before finally saying, “What?”

Zoey simply shrugs in reasons, “You can come to me if you need to talk about—“

”You can _not_ repeat anything I tell you to anyone else.” Tobin blurts out, cutting Zoey off.

”I wont say a word. Pinky promise.” Zoey says half-jokingly. She leans towards Tobin and sticks out her pink for him.

He looks down at her hand then back up at her. “Pink promise? Seriously dude?”

”I do it with my brother and Max. I though it was appropriate.” Zoey replies.

Tobin looks at her for a moment before wrapping his pinky against hers.

”Pinky promise?”

”Pink promise.”

”Okay. Well, you see there might be something that I have only really accepted recently. Like, last week recently, bro.” Tobin states, leaning back in his chair, his posture stiff. Zoey waits patiently as he takes a deep breath. “I’m pan and I have mad feelings for my best friend.”

Zoey makes her eyes go wide and her mouth forms and ‘o’ before responding, “Tobin, first of all, thank you for telling me that.” Zoey smiles softly at him and Tobin visible relaxes, “Secondly, we both have that in common. Having a massive crush on our respective best friend that is.”

Tobin scoffs, “It was obvious Max had a thing for you. With Leif it’s different. I don’t even think he’s into dudes.”

”It’s obvious Leif has a thing for you!” Zoey exclaims as if it is the most obvious thing in the world. “I’m serious Tobin. The way you two look at each other. The way he looks at you when you’re not looking, I’ve seen that look before.” She thinks back to the way her parents looked at each other and, more recently, the way Max looks at her.

Tobin just scoffs, once again, and averts his gaze.

”Hey. I know he’s your best friend and all but I have to say that my gaydar is never wrong—“

”Uh-huh. Like you weren’t totally blown away by my confession earlier—“

”And I know a fellow bisexual when I see one.” Zoey finishes ignoring the interruption.

”Fellow bisexual.” Tobin echoes. He gapes at her as he takes in what she just said.

”Yep,” Zoey chirps, “You are one of the only people who knows, besides my family. Consider yourself special.”

”Yeah, special.” He snorts and Zoey makes finger guns at him. He grinned at her before his expression became more serious.

He looked over to her expectedly and Zoey leaned forward giving him her full attention. “How do you, like, deal with it?”

Zoey hums. “Remember when I told you that friends have hard conversations? That they owe it to each other.”

He nodded his head at her so she continued. “Well we had one of those conversations, and it went surprisingly well. I owed it to him after everything I put him through. Even if he did reject me, for what ever reason, I still had to get it off my chest. He has every right to know, and he deserves it.”

Tobin took a deep breath before exhaling and clapping his hands. “Well, that was a deep convo we just had, huh.”

”Yeah it really was.” They sat in silence for a few moment, “As much as I would love to continue this, there is work we both need to get done.”

Tobin fries and gives her a mock salute before getting out of his chair. “You got it Boss-Lady.” Tobin was half way out of her office before he slowly turned around. “Hey Zoey?”

”Yeah?”

”Thanks for everything. I think this helped.”

”Anytime Tobin.” Zoey replies with a small smile as he walks back to his desk.

♥︎

Zoey was reading over some codes a few days after her talk with Tobin. Zoey believes that Tobin had his chat with Leif, especially since she hasn’t been haunted by any of the songs, but who knows with those two. At that moment she sees Leif and Tobin walk by her office. As soon as the soft music starts Zoey is out of her office.

”I swear if this is another song about you pining Tobin I’m going to... yell at you or—or something.” Zoey pouts at the duo.

” _They don’t know how long it takes_ ,” Tobin softly starts, “ _Waiting for a love like this_.”

Tobin spins so he’s now standing in front of Leif. “ _Every time we say goodbye_ ,” he reaches for Leif’s hands and pulls him towards the bullpen. “ _I wish we had one more kiss_.”

” _I’ll wait for you, I promise you, I will_.” They sing together, moving into a simple box step. Tobin leads Leif around the desks, their eyes are trained on each other like they are the only ones that matter in that moment.

” _Lucky I’m in love with my best friend_ ,” Leif sings back, “ _Lucky to have been where I have been_.”

Leif spins Tobin before pulling him back into his hold, as they harmonize together. “ _Lucky to be coming home again_.”

” _Lucky we’re in love in every way_ ,” they sing together swaying to the beat of the music, “ _Lucky to have stayed where we have stayed. Lucky to be coming home someday_.”

” _Oh oh oh oh oh oh oh_ ,” Leif presses his forehead to Tobin’s as the song comes to a close. “ _Oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh_.”

Zoey blink and both boys are standing in front of each other. Leif leans down and kisses Tobin, nothing more than a peck, before turning towards his desk. A few beats pass before Tobin breaks into a huge grin. He looks around to see if anyone noticed the moment they were having, and immediately makes eye contact with Zoey. She offers his a fond smile and his grin turns a little bit more sincere. Tobin gives her a thumbs up before sitting down in his chair and getting set up for work.

Zoey stays there for a moment, leaning on the doorway, her eyes traveling between the two men before letting out a soft chuckle. She turns around, bring one hand up into the air and snaps her fingers.

”Oh yeah, I’ve still got it,” Zoey mumble amusingly to herself. Under her breath she softly hums to the beat of the last song that was sung to her as she thinks about Max. Their very special friendship, turn complicated, bloomed into a beautiful relationship. Zoey can’t wait to tell Max about the new couple at SPRQ Point.

**Author's Note:**

> I had planned for this to only be ‘Can’t Help Falling in Love’ but this happened instead. One idea lead to another and before I knew it I had Leif sing to Zoey in the elevator. Bi Leif is canon and if he comes out like this I think it’ll be cool. Idk just a thought.
> 
> Thanks for reading I hope you enjoyed :)
> 
> Songs are:
> 
> Can’t Help Falling in Love by Elvis Presley
> 
> I’m bisexual - a coming out song by Dodie Clark
> 
> Lucky by Jason Mraz


End file.
